Ben Casparius Provides Crucial Length Out of the Dodgers’ Bullpen

In years past, many successful teams in MLB have relied on workhorse starting pitchers to carry them throughout a season.

While these pitchers were not expected to dominate in every start, they were able to provide an incredibly valuable resource: innings pitched.

Starters going for 200 innings or more in a season was far more routine in the not-so-distant past. Players like David Price and Johnny Cueto threw more than 240 innings as recently as 2014.

Nowadays, this is no longer the case.

Pitching injuries continue to mount across MLB, and many teams have struggled at times to lengthen their staff. The grueling marathon of a 162-game season has become an even greater challenge. 

Perhaps no team has been at the forefront of this issue like the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Currently, the starters on the Dodgers’ injured list include Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, and Gavin Stone. Though he has continued hitting, Shohei Ohtani has also yet to return to the mound since his arm injury in 2023.

The Dodgers’ rotation was projected to be among the best in MLB going into this season. Now, just a month and a half into the year, their rotation depth has been stretched thin far earlier than expected.

If the Dodgers hope to climb the mountain once again this October, they will need someone to step up and fill this void sooner rather than later. As it would seem, they have found a somewhat unexpected answer to this problem.

Rather than trading for a starter or calling up prospects for spot starts, the man to rise to this occasion has not been a starting pitcher at all. Instead, long reliever Ben Casparius has been the one to answer the call.

Enter the Rookie

Casparius first got called up last year, pitching 8.1 innings to a 2.16 ERA. His initial major league stint was rather short but gave him a small chance to showcase his potential.

Casparius has begun to live up to this potential in 2025. Over the first several weeks of the season, he has pitched phenomenally as the Dodgers’ top multi-inning reliever.

In 25.2 innings pitched, Casparius has racked up 28 strikeouts while allowing just five walks en route to a 2.81 ERA and 0.7 FanGraphs WAR. Equally impressive is his 2.82 expected ERA, while his 1.99 FIP is even more promising.

Furthermore, these statistics are inflated by Casparius’ lone meltdown appearance this year on April 12, when he allowed six earned runs against the Cubs in just 1.2 innings.

Excluding this appearance, Casparius would have a 0.75 ERA.

While it can be somewhat disingenuous to exclude outings for the sake of producing better-looking statistics, the purpose here is to demonstrate the vital function that Casparius has served.

Aside from one rough outing, he has been lights-out while providing much-needed length for the Dodgers’ battered pitching staff.

In 10 of his 12 appearances on the year, Casparius has allowed two hits or fewer. He has prevented a run from scoring in nine of these outings.

Perhaps most critically, he has pitched for longer than a single inning in nine of these appearances. 

On a team filled with superstar talent, it has been a rookie reliever who has led the pitching staff through injury uncertainty. Among Dodgers pitchers, only Yoshinobu Yamamoto has accumulated more fWAR (1.4 fWAR) than Casparius this year.

The Recipe for Success

Casparius has been off to an incredible start in 2025, but what can explain his early success?

For one thing, Casparius works with a fairly well-rounded arsenal. He throws a four-seam fastball and a slider most frequently (both upwards of 30%), while also mixing in a cutter (20%) and curveball (12.9%).

The fastball sits around 96 mph (79th percentile) with carry at around 18 inches of induced vertical break. This pairs well with his slider, which maintains both depth and impressive horizontal break. 

His cutter has strong horizontal movement but less vertical drop, and his curveball possesses both above-average vertical and horizontal break. These four pitches together give him a wide variety of angles and speeds to attack from.

For righties, Casparius emphasizes the slider early and in favorable counts, leaning more on the four-seam fastball and cutter to get back into counts. 

Against lefties, he dials back the slider in favor of the curveball while mixing in a healthy dose of cutters and fastballs. 

Casparius attacks the zone, allowing him to walk just 4.8% of batters (87th percentile) while striking out 26.9% of batters. He also rarely gives up home runs despite owning a fly ball rate close to 45%.

His pitch selection and control of the strike zone allow him to live in the zone while mitigating hard contact (96th percentile hard-hit rate). All of these factors have combined to make Casparius one of the best long men in the major leagues this year. 

Is Casparius Here to Stay?

Casparius has been elite in 2025, and a presence the Dodgers have sorely needed. In the midst of their mounting injury concerns, they will certainly rely on him moving forward.

Manager Dave Roberts has spoken in the past about the potential of stretching Casparius out to work as a starter. However, the results he has provided thus far suggest that it may be more advantageous to solidify him in his current role.

Whether he maintains this level of run prevention over a larger sample remains to be seen. What’s clear is that the rookie’s performance has been exceptional thus far, while leaving room for further development.

Casparius is still only 26 years old and could certainly continue to improve as he gains more big league experience. The Dodgers will hope that his early performance is an indicator of this possibility.

Only time will tell, but Casparius has put the league on notice so far this season. While some regression may be expected, he will almost assuredly play a crucial role for the Dodgers as they look to repeat their 2024 postseason success.